The world has blown past the 400 parts per million carbon dioxide milestone, and is unlikely to return below that threshold again in our lifetimes. It’s the biggest climate news of the week and quite possibly, the year. And it’s also a sobering reminder of what our carbon pollution problem is doing to the world.*
Included in the article is a carbon dioxide spiral by month and year since 1959 showing how carbon dioxide has increased. The animated figure is by Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading in the United Kingdom. I won't include a copy of the figure because you have to see it expanding before your eyes. Also included is a reference to the earlier temperature spiral from 1850 to 2016 by the same author.* You get to see the global temperature rising and falling through recent times.
And the problem is not just with carbon dioxide, but methane also is rising (and has 30X the effect as an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide):
The study shows that even though fossil fuels development has polluted the atmosphere with up to 60 percent more methane than scientists previously thought, the main culprits behind the rise in global methane levels are wetlands, landfills, rice fields and belching cows***.
There is a recommendation that we whould write letters to our heirs about the lask of greenhouse gas buildup and increasing gtemperatures wasn't taken seriously in the Unite States during our lifetimes.
* https://www.climatecentral.org/news/400-ppm-carbon-dioxide-spiral-20748
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/see-earths-temperature-spiral-toward-2c-20332
** http://www.climatecentral.org/news/noaa-april-hottest-on-record-17466?wpisrc=nl_wonk
*** https://www.climatecentral.org/news/oil-gas-cows-culprits-in-methane-spike-20772
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